not only does its make his administration look competent but it makes the case for a government role, the role of government has been one of the fundamental debates between these two candidates. if the federal response does not look so competent we've seen how devastating that can be for incumbent presidents. we saw that with katrina, for instance, and george w. bush. >> woodruff: dan, what about a role for governor romney at a time like this? >> well, it's minimal at this point. i mean he really has to remain essentially iisibe. he can't lok like he's trng to do anyingoxplit the politics of the moment. so in a sense there's more potential up side for president obama, but as susan said more potential down side for governor romney i think it is a matter of just kind of waiting and watching and then deciding at what point he can go back out. i mean one of the issues is, does this short circuit kind of the surge of energy that we've seen around the romney campaign? there's no question that there is more energy out there in the republican base and at events he's been holding. does this af